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ERA-Interim: derived components

Era-Interim data are used to derive monthly mass, moisture and energy budget products. Each term is available.
Atmospheric energy, mass, and moisture budgets can be computed by vertically integrating reanalysis fields and employing suitable corrections (e.g. mass). The budgets are uniquely valuable for interpreting the climate's mean state and its variability. They can also be used in conjunction with complementary data (i.e. top of atmosphere fluxes) to diagnose the surface energy budget and over large scales these estimates can rival or surpass other methods for doing so.

The total atmospheric energy budget consists of the combined dry static energy (Cp•T+g•Z), latent energy (Lv•Q), and kinetic energy terms, the tendency and divergence of which can be explicitly computed. These fields are available individually, or in sum as total energy divergence (TEDIV) and total energy tendency (TETEN). All budget fields are computed on monthly timescales on the native model grid.

Terms available and their definition:

TEDIV = DSEDIV + LEDIV + KEDIV

TEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ+L•UQ+ UK, Cp•VT+ g•VZ+L•VQ+ VK)

DSEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ, Cp•VT+ g•VZ)

LEDIV = del•(L•UQ, L•VQ)

KEDIV = del•(UK, VK)

Technical Notes

A detailed outline of the process of estimating energy flows is described here.

Acknowledgement of any material taken from this page is appreciated. On behalf of experts who have contributed data, advice, and/or figures, please cite their work as well.

ERA-Interim: derived components

Era-Interim data are used to derive monthly mass, moisture and energy budget products. Each term is available.
Atmospheric energy, mass, and moisture budgets can be computed by vertically integrating reanalysis fields and employing suitable corrections (e.g. mass). The budgets are uniquely valuable for interpreting the climate's mean state and its variability. They can also be used in conjunction with complementary data (i.e. top of atmosphere fluxes) to diagnose the surface energy budget and over large scales these estimates can rival or surpass other methods for doing so.
The total atmospheric energy budget consists of the combined dry static energy (Cp•T+g•Z), latent energy (Lv•Q), and kinetic energy terms, the tendency and divergence of which can be explicitly computed. These fields are available individually, or in sum as total energy divergence (TEDIV) and total energy tendency (TETEN). All budget fields are computed on monthly timescales on the native model grid.
Terms available and their definition:
TEDIV = DSEDIV + LEDIV + KEDIV
TEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ+L•UQ+ UK, Cp•VT+ g•VZ+L•VQ+ VK)
DSEDIV = del•(Cp•UT+ g•UZ, Cp•VT+ g•VZ)
LEDIV = del•(L•UQ, L•VQ)
KEDIV = del•(UK, VK)

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.